Lonza latest pharma for Chesterford Research Park
ing services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, has signed a 15-year lease of the 42,000 sq ft Gonville building, a two-winged building linked by a central reception block. The low-density development, set within 250 acres of impressive parkland, offers not only ultra-modern and energy-efficient laboratory and office space. It is within easy reach of The Nucleus central facilities building at the core of the hub.
Lonza will join a variety of established and early-stage pharma, biotech and technology research and development companies including Arecor, AstraZeneca, Cambridge Epigenetix, Charles River Laboratories, Domainex, Isogenica and Evonetix.
Yvette Stallwood, head of applied protein services at Lonza Pharma & Biotech, said: “Relocating the Cambridge site operations from Granta Park to Chesterford Research Park allows us to continue to expand our operations and services to support our customers.
“Increased capacity in the Gonville Building will provide laboratory and office space to further advance risk assessment and development of early-stage biotherapeutics and vaccines.
“The refurbishment programme is already under way and we plan to relocate the Cambridge operations in Q1 2020.”
Lonza’s offers protein design and optimisation services including a complete line of in silico and in vitro services for manufacturability, immunogenicity, humanisation and protein engineering.
These technologies include the Basel-based award-winning and patented Epibase T cell epitope screening platform for immunogenicity assessment, along with a proprietary technology platform for structural protein engineering.
The protein production service is for quantities from mg to kg.
The Cambridge service enables scientists to determine a testing strategy, analyse and interpret the data, and recommend next steps throughout the process.
Rob Sadler, head of Savills Cambridge, said: “This is a significant move for Lonza as a major customer within the cluster. The fact that we have been able to pre-let the Gonville Building is testament not only to the strength of the market, but also to the park itself.
“We are seeing significant interest in Chesterford from a number of sources, as evidenced by this and other recent deals. The Newnham Building, for example, which is currently being completely refurbished, has garnered significant interest – so much so that one suite is now confirmed as pre-let to Isomerase, and of the remaining three, two are currently under offer, despite the fact that the building is not due for completion until 2020.
“Given the intensity of interest in Chesterford Research Park and looking to the future, discussions are already underway to scope Chesterford’s next phase of speculative development. It’s an incredibly exciting time for the park.”
More than 350,000 sq ft of laboratory R&D space has been let and occupied on Chesterford Research Park. Further phases of construction are proposed to extend the development to approximately 1 million sq ft.